San Bernardino County is pursuing a lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom challenging the governor’s coronavirus reopening plan. County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday (Nov. 17) to ask the county’s attorneys to prepare the potential lawsuit.
Supervisor Janice Rutherford said the governor’s “one-size-fits all” approach is not science-based, and the county should have less-strict regulations in areas with lower case rates. As of Tuesday, 14 of the more than 70 communities in the county, including here in the Morongo Basin, would qualify for a looser tier of the governor’s reopening plan if those communities were evaluated independently, instead of being grouped with the county overall.
County Counsel Michelle Blakemore warned that a court’s decision would probably take months or longer and appeared unlikely to favor the county. She also noted that the county could lose funding, not just for coronavirus relief but for other programs, from homeless services to the Sheriff’s Department, if it didn’t comply with the orders.
County CEO Leonard Hernandez said the county had already been lobbying to let some areas reopen if they had fewer cases, the process used to give many schools in the county waivers to reopen, and had met with no success.
San Bernardino County’s coronavirus cases have surged in November, with the two highest days so far coming Tuesday and Wednesday and giving the county the second-most cases in California.
